Marcus Clarke

“ Something which Keturah Harris would have taken for a corpse, but for the great black eloquent eyes of it, which gazed at her with all the dumb agony of a dying dog.
Revenge melted into air.
'Geordie! my bairn! Geordie, my jo!'
Mr. Welsher reverently damned his soul, and shut the door, for the old faithful wife was on her knees at her husband's bedside.
---
"But what became of Israel Davis?"
"Who knows. He made good terms with the Marrables and left the colony--it is rumoured for America. But a man of his ability could get on anywhere." ”

“ The 'Ring' is overpoweringly admirable. No racecourse in the world can boast greasier, flashier, hoarser-voiced, or dirtier-handed bookmakers than Mephisto, Blackadder, Samuelson, Barnabas & Co.
Young Harry Marrable, walking up and down the lawn--elbowed by bawling bookmakers shouting the odds beneath the charming noses of the soft-goods aristocracy--was ill at ease. ”

“ Our resources may be insufficient, but no one can doubt our willingness to please. The dramatis personæ jockeys, fine ladies, lorettes, Jews, three-card-men, loafers, swindlers, gamblers, pickpockets and police--are represented to the best of our ability, and if we do not raise the curtain upon so splendid an array of beauty and fashion as that which yearly beams from the dress-circle of the Epsom Grand Stand, we have at least equalled the legitimate theatre in our transpontine luxury of villains. ”

“ You have a "moral sense", a "society", a "parson." Bah. I am Israel Davis.'
'You are a monstrous scoundrel! Go. I will write to my solicitors.'
'Good evening, my, dear sir,' said Mr. Israel.
They heard his cart-wheels crunch the gravel, and then old Marrable looked at his son.
'It was my fault, Harry. I should never have allowed you to come in contact with that scoundrel. He is enough to corrupt any one.'
Harry Marrable suffered the excuse to be made, and left the sick-room with stern promise of repentance and amendment. On his way he met Keturah, cloaked and hooded. ”

“ Israel was to be a loser in a double sense. He went to the safe and took out the bill. There it lay--worth £1,000, at least, if he could only keep it a few months longer. The signature was well forged. The words Marrable and Davis were capitally imitated. Mr. Israel smiled as he recognised the final flourish of his own 's.' How provoking to be compelled to give up so splendid a prize! He began to wonder at the mood in which Master Harry must have found himself when he began forgery as a profession. ”

“ My God, he's killed.'
It was 'Trumpeter's' race, for 'Bandoline,' swerving at the final fence, breasted it, toppled, and fell, crushing his rider beneath him.
Harry turned sick. Was this an accident, or had the daring scoundrel, recklessly faithful to Luck and his promise, 'pulled' the beast as he had agreed, and so brought about this catastrophe? Blackadder, muttering oaths, shouldered his way through the crowd. ”

“ Gentleman George's Bride The appearance of a racecourse is much the same all the world over, and the Melbourne Racecourse differs only from that of Epsom in the regard of an octave. The melody of the turf is set a little lower to suit the less refined ears of our musicians. ”

“ In that house, there is a paralyzed and helpless man who has not yet reached middle-age. He is her husband. She expends her earnings in buying him nourishing food, and paying a child to mind him when she is away. ”

“ The unlucky accident to 'Bandoline' had placed Mr. Davis in sore straights for money, and he confessed dismally that the £250 which that accident would enable young Marrable to pay him would be but a small instalment of the sum the bookmakers would demand that evening. He had counted upon this 'bill' being a tower of financial strength to him in days to come. When Mr. Harry Marrable was admitted to a larger participation in the profits of the firm, the astute Davis had promised himself that he would not part with the forgery for less than three times the amount which he had paid for it. Mr. ”